WALL STREET: More Risk Capital

Though businessmen complain of a shortage of risk capital, the SEC last week reported that
in 1951 corporations floated $7.8 billion worth of new securities, more than $1
billion above the 1950 total and equal to the alltime high in 1929. The
new securities were more speculative than in recent years, chiefly as a
result of the bull market. From 1940 to 1945, the SEC noted, only 16.1%
of the new issues were common stock; the rest were bonds and preferred
stock. But in the past six years, the common stock share of the total
has jumped to 30.7%.